Hurricane Season - 2008

[Mr. RF62]

Yea, that was quite the update he gave us and off he went.

Good to hear your safe Dave and Family. Hope others are good down there as well!

[BLSamuel]

Getting 500 lbs. of Frazier's in a Crown Vic is problematic...

I am going to stay up late tonight as I probably won't get a lot of sleep tomorrow. It is still very quiet and calm here. Good listening situation. Time for Pete Fountain.

Not sure I have a really good rendition of "Nearer My God to Thee."

Dave

Dave,

Glad to hear you made it through the storm. Now our prayers are to get through the aftermath.

Not sure if its a really good rendition but I did find I have "Nearer My God To Thee" by the Canadian Brass so it's at least a unique rendition. Just played it in your honor.

Ben

[jbsl]

Not sure how Erik is holding up but Wardsweb lives in San Antonio which like me did not get any adverse weather from the storm other than some extra wind and no rain.

The western edge of Ike came about 25 miles of me and now is heading North East. Hopefully all Forum members on the coast made it thru the storm okay.

[jbsl]

Anyone in N Eastern Texas, Eastern Oklahoma, and Western Arkansas is getting plenty of rain right now.

[Lonelobo]

I heard from Dave this morning. Water to the curb of his yard, but didn't enter house. Lost a piece of his yard's fence. Est. 3 weeks w/o electricity. He will empty fridge and freezer and head north to kin in Texarkana in the next day or so. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, the Model 11's are ok.

[CECAA850]

Ike was a beeatch. My home fared well other than a leak in my oldest daughters room and downed fences and tree limbs in the yard. I'm up and running off my generator for now. 2 hours on and one hour off to save fuel and keep the freezer stuff cold. We currently have a water boil order and low water pressure. The city sewage treatment facility is running under generator power at much less than normal capacity. We've been told that it'll be about 3 weeks before power is restored and our entire town (100,000 population) is without normal electrical service as well as the outlying areas. There isn't as much damage to the power lines as there was with Rita but a bunch of transmission stations were (and are still) submerged. Looks like my 2 daughters and I will be camping out here at home till the food or gas runs out. See you during one of my next generator sessions.

Carl

[jbsl]

Glad to hear everything and everyone is doing okay. Stay safe!

My sister use to live in Orange and left when Rita was on it's way and just moved to Wimberley after Rita came thru.

[picky]

Seeing just how many windows broke out of building down there on the news, Dave and his bride sure are fortunate! Thanks goodness they are alright!

Steve: Are the Tahoe and Jeep yours or your friends? I'm glad to hear it wasn't worse and everyone's okay. -Glenn

[Dflip]

I'm glad you guys survived Ike. I think Dave has a good idea, empty out the fridge and freezer and head for relatives who have power. It it's going to be three weeks before power is returned, that's too long to survive without fans or air conditioning in humid conditions.

Do what you immediately need to and then have a well deserved rest.

[CECAA850]

As soon as our freezer food is gone, we'll most likely head to Dallas, where my wife went with her work. In the mean time, we're cleaning up. We hauled 6 wheelbarrels full of leaves out of our pool this morning. The weather is cooperating also. Mid 80's and overcast. After Rita we were without power for 8 days and it seemed like every day was at least 100 degrees. School has been suspended indefinitely. I've also heard that the Gulf coast region only has a 5 day reserve of gasoline. Only 1 refinery in our area is looking to start back up so I'm sure we'll see a jump in gas prices. Heck, I'd be happy to find a working gas station at this point.

Carl

[Groomlakearea51]

Mil drill's over early (NSW stuff) and caught the posts at the office, but just got home, etc.

Glad to see that it appears everyone made it through safe and sound. From experience in dealing with 2 weeks without power....., there are a number of things I do (and I handle safety/PIO for our Emergency Management during and after these "events").

For those who stay (I know it's common sense, but I'll throw it out there anyways...):

• Get in the FEMA or EMgt "ice" lines and try to get ice every day. Try to find bleach, at least 5 gallons. Or even better, pool chlorine in jugs. Try to get at a couple pints of fuel line dryer. Always scoop up some batteries, etc. when they are available. Grab styro coolers if they are around, reasonable or free.....
• Until you have power, or are ready to turn a generator on, absolutely turn off every light switch and the master breaker in your house. Also (best practice...) turn off all sub-breakers. When the power comes back on, and you turn the master breaker on, you won't have sudden massive surge/drop-out as everything in the house tries to turn back on at the same time. Turn on one breaker at a time, starting with A/C, then kitchen, etc.
• If you have a stand alone freezer, get everything you can out of any refrigerator freezers and pack it in the stand-alone. The more you fill up one freezer, the longer it will stay "frozen". Put as many bags of ice in that freezer as you can along with the food.
• If you do not have a stand alone freezer, turn the refrigerator off, and use coolers and ice for perishable items. The more ice, the better. Now's a good time to defrost the refrigerator and clean.... If you do not have coolers, but can get ice, put the bags of ice in the bottom of the fridge in the "vegetable bins". That way when it melts, it's in the bin for dumping...
• Sort perishables into "play lists" to eat, and pack the items that you will eat into coolers with the "menu" in order of consumption.
• If you have a generator hooked into the house system (with the switch box, etc.), great! But... fuel consumption is related to the load. Turn off the hot water heater and set the A/C to about 80. Be brutal and only turn on absolutely what you need. Avoid using stove/oven if you can. Microwave if necessary, they draw alot but cook fast.
• If you do not have a generator, see if your neighbor(s) have one you can borrow for a few hours each day in return for paying for fuel later.
• If using a generator, set the freezer or fridge at the coldest temperature.
• Never open the fridge or freezer unless you absolutely need to remove what you are going to eat and know what you want in advance so the door does not stay open for very long.
• Start cleaning up "stuff" now. That's where the 10,000 towels that I keep come in handy.... Dirty towels in a wallmart "tub", outside so the humidity is not added to the house. Wet but not dirty towels? Hang them outside to dry. Old school, but what the hey!
• If you have a ladder, go on your roof and make sure any tiles "flipped up", are flipped down. If missing tiles, you can temp seal the edges and any exposed roof tile nails with silicone. Do not "nail" tiles down, or nail anything through the remaining tiles, etc. unless you know you will replace the roof..... Reason? Water is like nature... It will find a way to get in around the nails, etc.
• If you had any leaks, get into your attic as soon as possible and find the wet insulation and get it out as fast as possible. You can replace it later. Reason? It holds water, takes forever to dry out and will grow mold on the ceiling drywall. Actually, you should get up there and check anyways, especially below ridge vents and along the areas where the trusses meet the walls.
• If you have a small generator and it's not capable of a 240V feed to an A/C (usually 12K or bigger), try to obtain fans. Keep the fans running in only those rooms you occupy. Keep all other doors shut. If your Klipsch stuff is in another room, keep that door open and the fan pointed at your "electronics".
• Humidity sits low and heat sits high. Aim fans up at a 30 degree angle to force the dry air to come down, pick up the humidity, etc.
• If no A/C, keep windows shut until any flooding subsides to keep excess humidity out of the house. If you open windows, try to only open windows on the windward and leeward sides to keep a flow of air through the house. position fans near the windward windows to increase air flow.
• Try to only open windows in the evening when the humidity condenses out of the air and there is less humidity in the air flow. If water got in, keep the windows open as described to accelerate the drying process.
• If water got in anywhere, put bleach in a "squeeze" bottle. Ideally if you can find a store that's open, Tilex grout cleaner spray is the best. Spray this stuff every six hours on drywall, etc. and it will prevent mold. Do this for at least a week or until your drywall is "dry" and hard to the fingernail like before the storm.
• If the water system is "city water", great!! If you are on a well like most of rural Florida.... here's the rule: If it's yellow, let it mellow... If it's brown, put it down.... 2 oz of bleach in the toilet will keep it safe for a number of "doo-doos". If there is standing water anywhere outside, get at least 3-4 buckets of water and keep them handy outside. Once a day "flush" the toilet with a bucket of water, and then add couple ounces of bleach. Use only ONE toilet until power/water comes back on.
• If you have lawnmowers, drain the fuel to use in a generator or put it in your primary vehicle. If you are low on fuel in your primary vehicle and have another vehicle, "siphon" (the old redneck credit card trick...) that fuel out into fuel containers or milk/ bleach/ water jugs and put it in your primary vehicle.
• Meat in the freezer that you will have to eat? Want to cook and have fun... Here's the chance to make an old style redneck BBQ.... 4 cinder blocks and a piece of "pressed metal" grating (or you can always use an old refrigerator shelf....). Piece of foil on ground (keeps moisture out of wood), line with the cinder blocks. Use "dead fall" wood or charcoal. Don't use "debris" wood as it is likely pine or spruce and has fire retardant chemicals like cyanide compounds that are not good for you... Use mineral spirits as lighter fluid (that's what BBQ lighter fluid is, and they charge you 10 times more for the "BBQ" label....)
• Unless it's absolutely necessary, always have someone in yor house. Dependent upon where you live..... stay armed... People get pretty desperate after 2-3 weeks without gas, power, etc and sometimes wander around looking for easy targets.

Hope that helps some if you are going to be "refugees" for a week or so.

[Mallette]

There IS a God and he likes me...power and cable back. I was out at the grill getting ready to cook when I noticed the debris in the pool had assumed an odd and organized shape. Then I saw movement and the Polaris was trying to clean it up. Our bills have been near 1000.00 this summer and I complain about Houston have pretty close to the highest electric rates in the nation, but for the moment "Glory to the heros of the grid!!!." Centerpoint Energy gets a bye from my complaints, at least until the next bill comes in.

I suppose our underground utilities and the big generating station just a few miles down the road helped. We are VERY fortunate. I was also just taking pix of the freezers for insurance as I was going to dump them tomorrow and head north. I'll stay put through tomorrow at least and get the pool cleaned out. Glad I waited to dump all the shock and chorine tablets in there (note to self: Next emminent hurricane DRAIN THE POOL COMPLETELY. I was lucky this time, but if that junk had stayed in the three weeks I'd have had a LOT of mess to clean up).

I slept outside last night as the house was intolerable. Could not find any insect repellent at all so the mosquitoes feasted...but at least I was able to sleep (note to self: Add insectant repellant to list for next year along with 7kw NG/Propane generator, portable AC, lots, etc).

So, I send my family to Texarkana, 295 miles north, and the eye of Ike comes right over them and they were without power from about 2000 last night until about an hour ago. They didn't even have coffee as I sat down to bacon, pancakes, coffee, OJ, and fresh baked sticky buns prepared out on my grill. Really quite easy to bake on a grill...newly acquired skill.

I know this will sound like a tall tail, but I slept through the worst part of the storm. It was pretty rough as the eye approached. I had a little battery powered TV that has kept me informed the whole time so I knew when it reached Galveston and could predict it's arrival. I was about 10:00 off. I might also mention my readings of it's behavior caused me to have a lot of hope that it would cross about where it did instead of Freeport. That little jog kept about 2 feet of water out of my house! Winds died off and it became calm. Then the clouds thinned and the moon came out, along with more stars than I've ever seen over Houston, since the power was out for miles around. Dead silent and pitch dark. I had propane, Aladdin, and battery flourscents/LED lights in the house so it was well lit, but outside was truly weird. I was exhausted, both because I'd been up very late the night before and not slept well and from stress. I figured the other side would not be quite so bad and I might as well get some sleep. How wrong I was. About 0430 I awoke to a HUMMMMMMM at around 100db punctuated with crashes, bangs, and thunder. It was so awful I went back to sleep! Figured being awake wouldn't better equip me to face my Maker so...didn't wake up until 0930 to a stiff but variable wind and rain.

Damage in my neighborhood is significant but as far as I've walked no major structural failures in Lake Cove. Lots of roof damage, but none at my house. Couple of leaks, piece of fence gone, etc. However, I walked down to Hwy 146 and starting about half a mile down the road there was a debris wall around 4 feet high and studded with boats and other stuff covering the highway all the way to the Kemah bridge, about another 1.5 miles. That is how close I came to getting flooded.

So, now to crank up the 'horns and listen to the awesome Linn 24/88.2 recording of "Hallelujah" chorus from Messiah...

Anybody here from Rigged25? He apparently doesn't hang out in 2 channel where I spend 98% of my time and I'd not heard of him before. However, he lives only about 20 miles SE of here and I've not seen him post since that one. It was pretty bad down that way.

Also, I want to thank you guys for al the real, vs. "virtual," love and offers of help. I've felt a strong bond with you guys for years, but being in touch with you guys in the first few hours of Gotterdamerung went a long way toward keeping my calm. I love you guys!

Dave

[Hifi jim]

Glad to hear you made it through okay Dave. Welcome back to the 21st century. I hope the other forum members down your way were as lucky.

[fenderbender]

Amen Brother!!!!!

Well Dave you've been smiled upon, and I am so happy that you are relatively unscathed!!! I was watching you post the night of the storm and got a real sinking feeling in my stomach as you lost power and your posts stopped!!! You add so much to this forum, and I feel a brother-ship with you even though we have never met. i hope they get your whole town back to normal soon.so you can get your lives back to normal.

Great to hear from you!!!!

[oldtimer]

Ha! Dave I can relate. I sleep to stress also. That's why I slept so much in college? Well, maybe part of it. All I can say is $1000? Holy moolah!

[Dflip]

With the air back on, hopefully you will be able to get a good night's sleep. It sounds like you could use it, Dave. Glad to see you made it through, mosquitoes and all.

It is amazing what you can see when you are in the dark. The power failure several years ago had my power off for two days with no electricity. It was certainly quite different and the heat was unbearable for sleeping the hottest, most humid nights of the summer.

Take good care of yourself.

[Arky]

God does like you Dave. I thought about you through the night as I was watching the tube. The aftermath on tv sure looks bad. Good luck on the clean up.

[colterphoto1]

I just got back from Hope a couple hours ago. We saw three huge convoys of 8-15 trucks each from Alplundh, Wright Tree Service, and some P&L trucks heading down south to help out. Must be really really bad down there. We felt a driving rainstorm with water coming in nearly horizontally for most of Saturday night. I understand that Indy and Chicago got deluges on Sunday am too.

[Mallette]

Just spent a couple of hours NOT watching helicopter shots of my area in ruins. Program about the Gestapo. election news, nice, normal stuff. What a relief...

My brother was saying "...it was only a Cat 2." Indeed. But a bordeline Cat 3 700 miles across. Dr. Frank Fields, former head of the National Hurricane Center who is retired here and acts as storm expert for a local station, said the surge was Cat 4. Two settlements on the Bolivar Peninsula were simply washed away leaving hardly any debris. The Bolivar sticks out like a long, wide jetty towards Galveston Island and forms the gate to the bay. The surge was pushed over it into Galveston Bay and backed up all the way into near downtown Houston. Seabrook, too.

Speaking of news, don't believe the good press FEMA is getting. While no debacle and they've certainly occupied Galveston Island, a Harris County Judge was railing at them today as he appealed to citizens to provide food, water, and ice to...FIRST RESPONDERS!. Our police, fire, and medical people are getting NO support from the Feds. Here in the Bay area, my local police tell me they've had no communications whatsoever with FEMA, Red Cross, or military and haven't the faintest when they will show up.

Somebody tell me why a military fully equipped with combat engineers cannot knock its way through whatever and be on the streets within a few hours of such a catastrophe? If I were HS Secretary, I'd have these guys hunkered down with full equipment right at the edge of the storm and fan out the moment the winds allowed. They couldn't carry much but the sight of law and order itself is a huge relief in these situations and they could recce and advise HQ where help was needed most and just what kind.

WHERE IS THE CAVALRY????

In the days after Katrina I wondered why those Marine GEV's that can carry 300 hundred fully equipped Marines weren't roaring up the Mississippi to the rescue. We spend billions on this stuff and then don't use it to help our own.

Dave

[sunburnwilly]

Congrats Dave , you made it through like a champ !